Former Weir Elementary may get new life

A building at a former school on Rocky Creek Road may be filled again with children.

A conditional-use permit to allow a day-care center at the former Weir Elementary School, 1180 Rocky Creek Road, is expected to be discussed at Monday’s Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission meeting.

In July, the commission rezoned the school property from a residential district to a multi-family residential district to allow a 24-bed assisted-living facility and a convenience store.

The school was sold at auction in April 2009, after sitting vacant for years.

The current application is for the conversion of the former 15,000-square-foot kindergarten building into a day-care center for a maximum of 224 children from infant to 4 years old. Requests for a 48-foot variance in side-yard setback and a variance for a 40-foot rear-yard setback also is part of the application.

No exterior additions are expected, but the building will be renovated, according to the commission’s staff report. A 4-foot high chain-link fence will enclose the playground. Also, there is an existing row of hedges that has served as the buffer between the elementary school and adjacent properties.

“The day-care center will be no more intrusive to the surrounding area than the previous elementary school,” the report stated.

The commission meeting begins at 1:30 p.m. in City Council chambers at City Hall, 700 Poplar St.

305 Buford Place: In violation of Section 27.05 and Section 27A.07 of the Comprehensive Land Development Resolution (accessory building/storage shed erected without a Zoning Compliance or a Certificate of Appropriateness), HR-1 District. Chip Greene.

1345 Hardeman Ave.: In violation of Section 25.03 [2] of the Comprehensive Land Development Resolution (signs erected without a Zoning Compliance), C-1 District. Edward Foster.

1346 Jefferson St.: In violation of Section 27.05 of the Comprehensive Land Development Resolution (conversion of a warehouse to residential use without a Zoning Compliance), C-1 District. B.J. Fischer.